How one church uses web technology to keep its congregation up-to-date.
by Lauren Hunter

For many churches, building an interactive website and maintaining it as a significant communication tool remain unconquered tasks. Churches rarely use their websites to their full potential. A new understanding of a website’s purpose must be grasped.

Too many church websites are nothing more than a static collection of documents—a listing of a few events or a page of church contact names and numbers. Many church leaders might not even be aware that websites today can have many interactive features, including sections for visitor comments, tools to access church membership data, ways for church staff to communicate goals and purposes of special projects, and more.

To get more from this valuable tool, you need to extend your vision of what a website is and what it can do. As you’ll see, a church website can be used to communicate goals, increase volunteer activity, share strategic vision, and connect and assist members in making a greater impact in their community.

Use Multiple Sites
Mountain Lake Church in Cumming, Georgia views its three websites as tools to convey goals and visions. The pastoral staff relies heavily on the different websites to keep church members informed and connected.

Their initial website, www.MountainLakeChurch.org, has undergone three different redesigns in the church’s six-year history. Shawn Lovejoy, lead pastor, and David Putman, executive pastor, later developedwww.ChurchPlanters.com to assist and empower young church planters to reach disconnected people in their communities. Then two years ago, the pastors developed a third website, www.BecauseWeCare.com, as a part of a strategic initiative designed to expand the church’s influence and its physical campus.

“BecauseWeCare.com was designed to relate closely to our strategic direction as a church,” says Putman. “We worked with all our pastors to make sure the right content was up on the pages. Instead of including details on church growth and expansion projects on our main website, we decided to launch BecauseWeCare.com as a spiritual initiative with one of our goals being expansion of space.”

Constantly Promote
The pastors launched a six-week “Because We Care” teaching series and continued this theme in its sets and lobby. “Every aspect of our communication was aimed at driving people to the website,” notes Putman. “One of the important dynamics of the site during this time was what we called ‘life-changing stories.’ Each week, people could go to the site and communicate how God was changing their lives. With hundreds of people doing this, it was an extremely dynamic site.”

The church included all of its goals and plans for the new building project on the site. Church members could easily get information regarding the building plans and financial needs. But although the building expansion was important, church leaders wanted to make sure it was only part of the overall website project.

“We had a set of goals we called ‘The S’s:’ Spiritual influence, expansion of Space, additional Staff, and Strategic missions,” Putman adds. The church categorized information about each goal on the website. Regular updates gave details of how these goals were being met.

At its core, the Because We Care initiative challenged church leaders to ask, “God, what do you want to do through us (the church)?” and for each individual to ask, “God, what do you want to do through me?” In all aspects, the website communicated this core mission and encouraged members to pursue God’s plans in their own lives.

Create Interactivity
The church used the BecauseWeCare.com website to post comments about expansion project accomplishments, recommend ways for members to pray for the project, post pictures of the land acquired for new buildings, and post details of the master plan for the 30-acre site. The website even included a form for submitting questions about the building project. It also had a frequently asked questions page to address concerns from the members.

Putnam says that because their ministry is so dynamic, they placed a high value on technology that allowed them to be quick, flexible, and in control. They chose the ACS Extend Platform because it integrated well with the communication structures already in place at the church.

Several key ministry team members at Mountain Lake Church have administrative access to the three websites and can edit and upload new content including images, videos, slideshows, and audio clips. New information keeps the sites fresh in every way. Because the ACS Extend Platform is a content management platform, church staff can access and update their web pages from any location, and they don’t need to know HTML or be computer wizards to maintain the site. With an easy-to-use HTML editor that works much like a word processing program, they can create and layout new content and upload it to the website.

“Having a system that allows for multiple people to upload content and rearrange the site saves me from having to make lots of updates,” says Putnam. “It spreads the workload out and helps us focus on keeping the site fresh—with less work for one person.”

With their three-website strategy, Mountain Lake Church is able to accomplish three goals. The first goal is to communicate with those outside their church in a relevant way. The second goal is to communicate to those within the church and provide resources for personal growth and for creating community through small groups. The third goal is to provide resources for those within the church who are committed to reaching others.

Handle Donations
Functions for donating online are strategically located on the Because WeCare.com website. “We really didn’t want to hit new visitors to the Mountain Lake site with ‘Donate Here’ right in their faces,” says Putnam. “We wanted to invite visitors to the services and help them become a part of the church and not worry about donating from the get-go.”

The online donation information on the BecauseWeCare.com homepage can be reached by links from the Mountain Lake site. The church uses ServiceU for both its online donation functions and online volunteer forms.

“Providing members with easy ways to donate online is quickly becoming one of the fastest growing tools for us as a church,” says Putnam. “Currently, about 25 percent of funds donated come in through the website. Just before Christmas, I preached on giving proportionally to one’s income and utilizing the online donation tools our church provides. It was a huge success.”

Reach Everyone
In addition to using its websites, Mountain Lake Church provides information to its members through printed and mailed materials, e-mail, from the pulpit, and through printed worship guides and cards left in the sanctuary seats. During the Because We Care series, the church put computer kiosks in the lobby so that members without Internet access at home could have access to the site.

“We made our websites an important part of our culture, but we still have a long way to go,” adds Putman.

The church goals for 2006 include stepping up even further its web presence and commitment to technology. Church leaders hope to increase their use of e-mail for communication and to begin taking online registrations and payments for missions trips and other youth activities.

“In all things, we are strategic in our use of technology to encourage and support our ministries,” Putman comments. “Our focus is in changing lives through Christ—if web technology can help us accomplish this, then it is in our best interest to pursue it.”

Mountain Lake Church continues to research and implement new technologies that assist them with their ministries. They are pioneers, paving the way for more churches to make technology inroads and increase their ministry effectiveness.

Lauren Hunter (lauren@laurenhunter.net) is a trade writer and public relations consultant specializing in the faith-based and nonprofit technology markets. She currently consults as public relations manager to both ACS Technologies (lauren@laurenhunter.net) is a trade writer and public relations consultant specializing in the faith-based and nonprofit technology markets. She currently consults as public relations manager to both ACS Technologies (www.acstechnologies.com), maker of the Extend Platform, and ServiceU (www.serviceU.com), maker of TransactU.

Two tech innovations focus on church health and volunteers

Take Control of CHURCH Events!
ServiceU’s Online Ticketing Software Reduces Confusion and Gives Organizations Total Control Over Ticketing Process

Web-Based Box Office Ticketing Solution, TicketU, is Always Secure and Up-to-Date

CORDOVA, TN, December 6, 2005—Is your organization’s ticketing process sending volunteers over the edge with frustration? Are they fed up with taking phone calls, counting checks and making lists of tickets sold that are never completely up-to-date? With TicketU, a web-based online ticketing software solution by ServiceU (www.serviceU.com), your church or nonprofit will be able to eliminate all confusion associated with the ticketing process by reserving tickets through your organization’s website. With the ability to allow users to select their seating preferences, make payments online (if payment is required) and even choose their delivery options—e-ticket , mailed ticket, will-call or on hold—ServiceU has created TicketU to handle every detail of the complicated ticketing process with its comprehensive ticketing solution. TicketU has processed over 150,000 tickets to date and is sure to help organizations streamline events and increase overall outreach.

TicketU is completely web-based and accessible from any internet connection, and all data within the program is updated in real-time. This means that no information is ever out-of-date! Because the TicketU software is integrated with an organization’s website, box office staff don’t have to be present at the physical building to reserve seats, and ticket purchasers don’t have to be there either. Of course, staff can have access to the TicketU system from any internet connection, so tickets can always be sold face-to-face or over the phone, as well as online—whatever is most convenient. Most of the management of the ticketing process can be done from volunteer’s homes or the church office, making additional time savings a reality.

“Whether your organization offers small or large events, with TicketU, you will be able to present your customers with a much more professional ticket with little help and not as much effort as the end product would make you think,” comments Toni Hamilton, Minister of Community Involvement at First Baptist Church of Ft. Lauderdale, where their Christmas pageant is currently the fourth largest ticketed event in South Florida, selling 48,000+ tickets each year.

First Baptist’s volunteer workload has been affected dramatically since implementing TicketU. “We used to have nine people working on the ticketing process, now there are three. The load has shifted out of the office and into the homes of those attending the pageant.”

This is the goal of TicketU: To reduce administrative costs and manpower, while creating an easier and more effective method for church outreach.

“Over the past few years, churches and nonprofits we serve had been asking for a solution to manage the ticketing process,” remarked Tim Whitehorn, ServiceU founder and CEO. “So many organizations rely on big holiday events to draw in new visitors and reach out in their communities. We created TicketU to assist these organizations with achieving their ministry goals.”

TicketU may be used to sell reserved seats or general admission tickets. If selling reserved seats, TicketU can be set up to show color-coding in order to differentiate between different types of seats right on the organization’s website. This seat map can be used for different priced seats and/or for special seats such as those for disabled or hearing-impaired patrons.

TicketU is set up so that organizations have complete control of all funds accepted. Payments can be processed online or on-site for greater flexibility. Payments can be accepted either using a merchant account that uses a compatible provider or through a PayPal account. There are many safeguards built right into TicketU for maximum security including real-time credit card authorization, address verification and encryption of all transaction details.

TicketU provides all of the reports that organizations need to manage your ticketing process. Users can pull reports by event and get a summary of the ticket sales including number of tickets sold, total dollar amount of sales, number of tickets available, number of tickets on hold, number of tickets in process and the percentage of tickets that have been sold. These reports are especially helpful in reconciling the on-site cash sales made by box office staff.

So you see, TicketU has been created with every need in mind. And TicketU isn’t just for churches and nonprofits—the software can be used for any ticketing needs including small to medium sized theaters, recreational facilities and more.

For more information about TicketU or any other ServiceU product, email sales@serviceu.com or call 1-888-638-7439.

Unlocking the Future

By RaeAnn Slaybaugh

At the 49th-annual conference of the National Association of Church Business Administration in Keystone, Colo., we were introduced to a variety of new products — and old favorites — for the church market.

Get your MBA at 66% percent off! When asked why he was attending NACBA, Darrell Passwater (at right), dean of the School of Business at California Baptist University (CBU), said simply, “We’re here helping churches impact the world for Christ.”

In that spirit, he was excited about CBU’s online MBA program (www.calbaptist.edu), which is now being offered at one-third its original cost. The new pricing structure is designed specifically for church administrators and is offered online for students across the United States.

The student pays one-third the cost, with the requirement that his or her church pays one-third, and CBU pays the rest using scholarship funding.

“The response we’ve gotten from our friends in NACBA and from current students is that the program is great, but that price can be a sticky issue for many congregations in terms of ability to reimburse the student’s tuition,” Passwater explains. “This [program] takes the price from about $18,000 a year to $6,000.”

Planning for your future. Representatives were on hand from Envoy Financial (www.envoyfinancial.org) to spotlight their company’s retirement plans and financial services.

For more than a decade, Envoy has been providing these services and currently serves more than 7,000 ministry professionals. From plan design to implementation, Envoy’s experts are trained to assist — or revamp — a retirement plan that fits any ministry.

Envoy can help you set up a 403b, 401k or group-benefit plan (FSAs, HRAs and HSAs). Executive financial planning is also available for top management, and educational resources are offered for all employees.

Fund raising with integrity. Formerly the Genesis Group, Generis (www.generis.com) professionals have helped more than 1,600 clients raise more than $2 billion to help “build their dreams.” Marketing Manager Jane Chance says that at churches, this usually takes the form of capital-campaign assistance — mostly for new construction.

“We believe it’s less about raising capital and more about raising the spiritual consciousness of a people,” she says. “When that happens, organizations — and individuals — are free to realize their ultimate purpose and potential.”

Call 15 people or 15,000 — it’s all the same to these guys. Reps from OneCall Now (www.onecallnow.com) — formerly MyTeam One Call — were on hand to promote their new name and enhanced phone-tree services. Currently, the OneCall client list numbers more than 5,000, and the server makes 1,000 calls per minute. In total, that’s more than 1 million calls per month.

Better yet, this automated phone-tree system interfaces with all major management-software products, making it even more user-friendly.

In July, the company launched the system in the United Kingdom as well, so now you can set the system to dial up around the world.

It’s easy being green. According to the spokespeople from RNL Design (www.rnldesign.com), a “green attitude” is sweeping America’s churches. Choosing eco-friendly design communicates environmental responsibility and a social conscience — two very good messages for churches to be sending today.

Examples are abundant in the High Desert Church project RNL conducted in Victorville, Calif. At this church, tube-shaped lights embedded in the auditorium ceiling bend natural light from the outside to illuminate the whole space. When it rains, runoff water is collected and recycled to irrigate the church grounds. (Soap is also extracted from the water that’s used for washing hands and, again, used for irrigation.) The children’s building even has a grass roof! (See photo on pg. 14)

“Churches are starting to wake up,” says RNL Principal Doug Spuler (below, right). “If you’re thinking long-term, this can save you millions of dollars over 30 or 40 years.”

That’s the ticket! ServiceU (www.serviceu.com), makers of online software designed especially for churches, highlighted their TicketU online ticketing service. This feature lets people buy tickets to church events anytime, anywhere and eliminates the frustration of standing in line. It even lets church leaders assign reserved seating for a more personal touch and offers commercial strength to support paid or free events and online or onsite ticket sales.

Other ServiceU modules support event management, room scheduling, event registration, online donations and e-mail newsletters.

Laying the groundwork with style. Mondo (www.mondousa.com) reps say their new Advance maple-look flooring is just right for churches, especially in multipurpose areas. Advance comes in either triple- or double-layer designs and 18 standard colors to suit any environment.

This unique flooring’s first layer is comprised of vulcanized rubber for safety and comfortable play. The second, “resilient” layer is made of 100-percentnatural and synthetic rubber. The bottom layer — for shock absorption — is tear-proof.

As seen on TV. It used to be that only large churches could afford to make television commercials, but with Faith Highway’s (www.faithhighway.com) packages, this is no longer the case.

For the past 15 years, Faith Highway experts have worked with more than 6,000 churches worldwide — and they’ve achieved impressive results. More than 80 percent of those clients saw measurable growth while running the commercials; more than 30 percent reported significant growth in the first six months of airing them; and 14 percent grew more than 75 percent in the first five months.

Break it up! Rich Maas, vice president of marketing for Screenflex Portable Partitions (www.screenflex.com), says he regards the church market as extremely viable. “I go to a fair amount of church conventions, and in the last several months I’ve seen lots of expansion,” he says. Chief among the reasons for this growth are the need for classrooms.

His company’s partitions are designed to meet this demand and feature quite a few customizable options, including wood-grain freestanding cabinets, multi-unit connectors, doors, marker boards, panel locks (to hold the panels in position at any angle), windows, wall frames and chalkboards.

Catholic-friendly CMS. Logos Management Software promoted its Logos Catholic programs (www.logoscatholic.com) — two dynamic tools that score an A+ with parishes across the nation. Logos Sacramental Register lets users manage their Sacramental records, organize registers and print certificates.

And, adding Logos II Church Management program lets them maintain a single member profile for Sacraments, contributions, religious education and family information.

Logos Ministry Schedule offers detailed member profiles that track each person’s active schedule and the masses when they serve. It also keeps track of exceptions (vacations, for example) and sets links to other family members.

Software built for a church, by a church. Fellowship Technologies (www.fellowshiptech.com) highlighted its revolutionary enterprise church-management solution (eCMS), Fellowship One.

Fellowship One was created for Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas, to meet the need for a more effective, efficient way to handle the growing demands of a dynamic church.

Fellowship Technologies reps say their program offers a number of unique advantages, including secure data backup, free upgrades, a browser-based platform, contact-management capabilities, real-time attendance tracking, a check-in module, and Weblink, which integrates the church’s website with Fellowship One to provide online giving, event registration, small-group assembly and more.

It might say “lite,” but it doesn’t act like it. EMS Lite (www.dea.com) is a user-friendly room-scheduling software designed to manage the meetings and events that take place at a church facility. Starting and less than $1,300, this program is a cost-effective solution for churches that need to schedule rooms in a single building.

Standard features include Reservation Wizard; a graphical reservation book; month-at-a-glance calendar; and a number of clear, concise report functions. There’s also a user-defined custom-calendar function for virtually limitless reporting.

Users can also add Virtual EMS, a dynamic Web-based interface that’s easily configured to expose only the information you want to make public and adapt to your church’s rules for online requests and reservations.

SPOTLIGHT ServiceU Corporation
by Kathy Crosett

Soon after he launched his consulting firm in 1997, ServiceU founder and CEO Tim Whitehorn learned an important fact about churches.

“Because so many people and resources are involved, churches have a more complex scheduling and work flow process than most organizations,” he says. That discovery led Whitehorn to begin marketing the computerized scheduling system he’d developed for a church client. Since 1999, Whitehorn’s Memphis, Tennessee-based company expanded its product line to cover the entire event management spectrum. Whitehorn estimates that ServiceU currently has 20,000 users in over 900 churches.

Full Product Line
ServiceU sells multiple products, but EventU has always been the firm’s most popular offering. “People like EventU because it solves a tough problem in the church world: facilities and event management,” Whitehorn explains.

EventU automates resource scheduling. A single event might include reserving multiple rooms, a vehicle and driver, room set-up, food services, and childcare. Using EventU, you can coordinate the necessary resources, notify volunteers, and post the activity on your church’s online calendar.

To start using EventU, you simply set up your church resources such as rooms, vehicles, volunteer and minister time, and furniture and equipment in the automated system. Then you’re ready to process requests. For example, your room coordinator may receive and approve a request for an adult education class, book the rooms, and send the request to your support services person who reserves tables, chairs, and janitorial time. Finally, your central calendar coordinator posts the event and displays it on your website.

Churches found the system so helpful, they began asking for new EventU features. ServiceU responded by adding online registration capability for events ranging from concerts to youth camps to retreats. According to Whitehorn, “People want to come to events but they don’t want to stand in line to register for them. Also, online registration capability is more efficient for churches that would otherwise have to keep staffers and volunteers available for long periods of time.”

Churches also asked ServiceU for an automated way to accept payments. In 2004, the company introduced TransactU, an online payment system that churches use with EventU. TransactU allows churches to receive event payments and pledges. Whitehorn notes that some churches bring in close to 10 percent of their annual budgets via TransactU. Mindful of security, Whitehorn assures that ServiceU has “gone the extra mile to make sure personal information is protected when members make online payments.”

To help churches improve ticket management, ServiceU recently added TicketU to its product suite. “Some churches have thousands of seats,” says Whitehorn, “and without an automated system, staffers and volunteers may be tracking reserve and general admission tickets by looking through file cabinets, which is time-consuming and inefficient.”

With the TicketU module, churches can allow members to print e-tickets at home or pick up a ticket at a will-call window. TicketU can even be used for free events, especially when crowd control is important. For example, using the automated system makes it easier to set aside blocks of visitor seats during Christmas and Easter services.

Ease of Use
ServiceU software products are ready-to-use and need no customization, although company staffers set up the unique visual displays of church theater seating on the web for TicketU users. Whitehorn and his staff know that many church members are still progressing up the learning curve on computerized systems, so they offer plenty of help.

When you get started, you’ll designate a main contact person, usually the system administrator, to serve as the event coordinator. ServiceU trains the system administrator over the Internet. Then, using ServiceU’s online help facility and manuals, the system administrator trains other church users as the paper event management system is transferred to the online system. According to Whitehorn, most churches complete the conversion within a month or two.

From the beginning, ServiceU has delivered its products via a web-based system. This strategy gives users the capability to check calendars, register online, and receive customized e-mails while minimizing the impact on church computers and networks. Because the operating software resides on ServiceU servers, churches don’t have to worry about software installation. And when ServiceU updates one of its products, users have access to the new features immediately.

Flexible Pricing
ServiceU recognizes that churches have different scheduling needs. The company’s products work well in small (100-200 members) and large (20,000+ members) churches. To accommodate varying church requirements, ServiceU has adopted a usage-based pricing model. A church pays a base monthly fee to access Service U’s system. Additional fees accrue according to the number of resources and users a church sets up and the number of transactions processed each month.

For the future, Whitehorn notes that ServiceU remains committed to delivering the highest-quality event management software to churches. If you’ve experienced one too many instances of a double-booked fellowship hall, maybe it’s time to graduate to ServiceU’s state-of-the-art products for managing your facilities, vehicles, and time.